I've seen this asked on the forum, and its something that I think would be very handy if it could be made to work.

With the high level of friskyness in the kennels, with lots of puppies coming out all the time, it might be handy to have a tool that looks in an old save file, and sets the new system up with the old stuff.

EG

If I'm running lupu 5.28 but want to upgrade to slacko 5.31, I have to basically start again with all my personalisations, including browser bookmarks, email settings, passwords etc. It could go further to copy the resolution, desktop background, file associations etc.

For me personally, I like the idea of upgrading my puppy, but the sheer number of additions / alterations I have made, and the fact that it works fine anyway, makes me less inclined to bother. If a tool existed that analysed my save file, extracts data about what programs I have installed, which browser I use, that browser's bookmarks, my email etc, and then updates that information into the new save file being created in the new puppy, that'd be really cool, and handy.

I'm not aware of anyone being able to upgrade from any given version of Puppy to another -programmatically for sure. The idea that some program could be written which would do this for a variety of versions is pretty far-fetched.

I have a poor memory but at least two guys have mention to me
in threads that they have tried something similar.

They use frugal install and they place as much as possible on /mnt/home
instead in the save file.

That way they can reuse what is installed without having to start anew.

They do sym linking from /mnt/home to root on the new version.

I tested to do this with only two programs. Firefox and the email client
Sylpheed or what the name is. It worked well for many but if the kernel
where different then it could need libs that one had to load down and add manually???

Beem maybe where one of these that set it up like that.

As others have already told you. To upgrade from one to another only
work within same version. Lupu 511 to lupu 513 or 525 to 528 and
even this can fail.

So that is why Beem and many others has come up with that work around
to place almost all programs on /mnt/home and then symlink to the new version.

So their save file is very small only having such things as local time and keyboard for the country one live in and maybe wall paper and such.

One need to do some compromises but when it work it is a bless.

Try to use the search link in my sig and test with different key words
that may find these descriptions.

Another way is to make as much use of .SFS as possible that way
many of these but not all can be reused almost instantly Load SFS on the Fly as they name it._________________I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

I'm not aware of anyone being able to upgrade from any given version of Puppy to another -programmatically for sure. The idea that some program could be written which would do this for a variety of versions is pretty far-fetched.

You're right, you can't update Lucid Puppy to Slacko Puppy, the programs aren't compiled the same, but are compatible. That's why this tool would be great. And it is possible.

Following from what Nooby has mentioned. And using firefox as an example and starting point. My idea of a tool would see that you are using firefox, so would download that for you, in the new version of puppy you are using, then copy the settings found at /root/.mozilla from the old to the new. That will work easily enough.

The same could be done with the other useful programs you might use regularly, eg email, pnethood perhaps, your local network settings etc

you can also move your "my-documents" and "my-applications" folders to /mnt/home and symlink them back at the proper place in the new puppy.

You can also do this for the entire /usr/share directory: move it to /mnt/home and symlink it back to the proper place.

From the above, at least move /usr/share/backgrounds and /usr/share/fonts to /mnt/home and symlink them back in place.

I don't think it is possible for the bin and lib directories: you probably would end with a great big mix-up and it would make your new puppy unusable.

This works fine, however, I've tried it: you can selectively make a tar file of the /root/.config and the /root/Choices folders and any other configuration files in /root for programs you like, such as .bashrc, .Xdefaults, all the gtk*, etc. On your new puppy, you can then unpack these configurations into place. This will save you a lot of time instead of reconfiguring every program in your new puppy.

you can also move your "my-documents" and "my-applications" folders to /mnt/home and symlink them back at the proper place in the new puppy.

You can also do this for the entire /usr/share directory: move it to /mnt/home and symlink it back to the proper place.

From the above, at least move /usr/share/backgrounds and /usr/share/fonts to /mnt/home and symlink them back in place.

I know how to do this, I've also done it. But, my point, and the tool that I'm suggesting, would do this automatically.

You can find the question across this forum, and non puppy forums, about how to setup things like they were in the past.

Skipping the /mnt/home and symlink step, if you had the old save file.sfs you could click on it, mounting it, finding the settings you want, and then copy them to the new save file. For most programs, this will work fine as they are only config files, not program files. This is basically what musher0 is describing, in a roundabout way.

Now, for a total noob, this process is probably a little daunting, which is where my thought process is. A tool to help the total noobs.

As far as I see it, the only way to retain settings and data across different puppies is to have the same applications installed on those different puppies, and to migrate the noarch stuff, like config files, bookmarks, etc...

Many puppy users already know the simple trick of moving and replacing ~/.mozilla/ with a symlink to /mnt/whatever/.mozilla/, thus retaining firefox/seamonkey settings through different puppies...

Barry is looking into something similar for email clients at the moment.

I think, if anyone wants to take it up, a program that automatically searches for installed programs (firefox, seamonkey, claws-mail, sylpheed, opera, etc, etc, etc) and then moves all possible settings, data, etc to a mounted drive, and then sets up the required symlinks and so on...

You would not be 'migrating' anything other than the (mostly) XML, JS, etc files that these applications use to get setup/retain settings... The start point would be merely gathering a list of supported programs, and the location(s) of its 'keepable' files..._________________Akita Linux, VLC-GTK, Pup Search, Pup File Search

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad some of you are getting my meaning, and offering suggestions. Awesome.

musher0 - roundabout isn't something to be sorry about, just saying that we are basically saying the same thing. Good to know we somewhat think alike!

Yes, a script is a good starting point, and it looks like RSH is onto that already.

sc0ttman - you're spot on, only the xml etc files need to be copied for the settings.

RSH - You're a champ. Already putting something together. The script makes a tar.gz of what it's meant to, which is good. Your gui however, didn't work for me. I changed it to /mnt/home but it didn't create anything there for me.
Can you make your script look into an unused save file, rather than the currently used /root directory? My idea being, start a brand new puppy with a bare save file, then maybe drag your old save file into the gui, or type in the location, which then runs the script, almost as it is, but copies the settings from the old save file. Then, unpack the .tar.gz into the new save file, thus copying the settings.

That would be a great start. Further into development, perhaps it could look at what you have installed, via PPM, then offer to download the same programs, and then copy the config files from the old to the new save file.

Again using browser as an example....

Start a new "virgin" puppy. Run the update/backup/migrate tool. Tell it where your old save file is. It will say

Quote:

I see you have Firefox as your web browser before. Do you want me to install the latest Firefox for you in Puppy 6 and set it up with your bookmarks and settings? yes / no?

The you type yes, and it downloads and installs FF, and copies the /root/.mozilla from the old to the new.

The script makes a tar.gz of what it's meant to, which is good. Your gui however, didn't work for me. I changed it to /mnt/home but it didn't create anything there for me.

The app must run from directory /root. Only this works actually.

Edit: previous version did had a bug - sorry for that.

I added a simple text editor to edit the backup list easily.

Quote:

Can you make your script look into an unused save file, rather than the currently used /root directory?

You can do this actually by yourself - should work:

Mount the wanted savefile and then edit the file "run-bs-list" with path's to the mounted savefile - example: /mnt/+mnt+sda1+mounted-savefile.2fs/usr/local/lib/X11/pixmaps to get the pixmaps from there.

Should also work with mounted sfs files.
Try this and do report please.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum